Equity research firms would be much more successful if their business model looked less like a traditional brokerage and more like Barstool Sports.
Let me explain 
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Today's equity research model looks like this: - A large # of reports split bw high value research (what funds actually want) and low value research (noise). - Everything behind a paywall or bundled w/ brokerage services. - Big reports trickle into the media over time.pic.twitter.com/L4ghMSGhdN
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What if equity research instead looked like this: - High value research still behind expensive paywall - no change with today. - All research deemed "noise" by the buy-side is published for FREE via the web, social, podcasts, etc... The downstream impacts would be huge.pic.twitter.com/8xEZWHBsM4
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First, equity research analysts would become FinTwit stars overnight. A serious analyst publishing free, high quality research on a consistent basis would gather a huge following. Who wouldn't want to see & engage with what the GS auto analyst has to say about Tesla on Twitter?
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Second, research quality would improve dramatically. Analysts publishing bad research would be met with serious debate by the FinTwit community, and good analysts would gather a better following. The engagement wall would be broken and investors could see the reaction live.
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Third, research shops could potentially make a lot more money. With the highest quality research still paywalled, firms could monetize the less actionable (but still high quality) research with a public that is always starved for content.
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Think of a suite of serious Goldman Sachs research podcasts, Substacks, and Youtube channels. Everyone would consume this content, if only to make fun of terrible calls and argue with analysts, thereby sharpening the content automatically.
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There are some independent shops that are already doing this -
@Hedgeye as the biggest example that comes to mind. hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers bw the analysts, and high quality "freemium" research (some free, some paid) that works.Show this thread -
Bottom line - While only a fraction of what equity research firms produce is actionable, the rest is still good content, and I believe this is going to waste behind a high paywall today. Firms should build a following around their lower value content and build a social brand.
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End of conversation
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My experience with sellside analysts is that most think their work is high value, so they would struggle to categorise some of their work as “noise.”
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